It's All In Your Head
by Blair
Summary: Ginny is still in love with Harry Potter when she learns of Draco Malfoy's plan to sabatoge him. But will she eventually realize that her love for Harry is really just in her head? Starts out as Ginny/Harry angst, but will hopefully mature into Ginny/Drac


AN: Hey Everyone! First and foremost, this is Alissa, I just recently changed my author name, but I am the same person who wrote Two Roads Diverged, you can find that under my new author name, Blair. Secondly, I have to admit that Two Roads Diverged is at a semi-standstill. But I am not giving up on it. In the meanwhile I didn't want to stop writing, I missed it far too much, so here I am with a new chapter of a new story, that I really hope you like. It's starting off Harry/Ginny, but trust me, I don't think it's going down that path, I'm a huge Draco/Ginny shipper. I did think however it would be a good challenge to take Ginny from Harry-obsessed to a stronger person who realizes that her girlhood crush is just in her head.

Big thanks to Tabby who helped me come up with this title, I love it, thanks so much hun! J 

Many, many, many thanks to my awesome beta-reader Static! She is the simply smashing person who helped me out so much when I was so stuck. Static, I am so glad I have you to read my stories, help me out, and talk to. What would I do without you?! 

Disclaimer: even though I know that if the people at Warner Brothers wanted to sue me, this little disclaimer wouldn't do anything at all for me, I will still say that I own none of the characters, all of whom are copyright of Warner Brothers and I am making no money from this fanfic. So feel free to sue me if you so choose. I'm a high school student, good luck collecting…

And now without further ado,

**__**

It's All In Your Head

**__**

Chapter one: Like a dagger

****

Ginny and Harry were sitting in two overstuffed armchairs in the Gryffindor Common room. There was only about one more week of school left and everyone was in an anxious hurry, especially 6th years like Harry, Hermione, and Ron who had the majority of their O.W.L.s still ahead of them. In the dim light of the fire Ginny and Harry had just been sitting for some time now.

He had come across the room a little more than fifteen minutes ago, looking as though he was about to say something, something important. But he didn't say anything at all, just sat there looking tired, and handsome in that tousled hair sort of way. In Ginny's opinion there was no better looking boy. _Don't get over excited._ She sternly told herself as he sat down. _You don't know why he's here, most likely this is just the only chair left. Don't blush. Stop staring at him. You're breathing so loudly he must hear you, breathe softer!_ She was all frazzled.

Finally after what seemed like decades he looked at her and said, "Ginny, I need to ask you something really important."

She attempted to look up slowly and put all her effort into saying, as innocently as possible, "Yes?" While really the back of her head already was decided on the fact that he was working his way up to ask her out. _Boys don't say 'I need to talk to you about something important' unless it's for one of two reasons: A, they want to break up with you or B, they want to go out with you._

"You see…" and here he stopped, looking adorably flustered and worried. "I've had something on my mind for a really long time, but I don't know what to do about it." 

"Maybe I can help?" Ginny would have thrown herself from a cliff to in any way at all help. 

"I was hoping you could…" he looked intently into her eyes. And she looked straight back into his; oh, how unfair that such beautiful eyes could be given to a boy; they were powerful enough to drown in. "I've been meaning to do something for a while and well, I realized the school year is almost over, and before it is I really need to do this."

__

Oh.. my.. lord.. he's going to ask me out! There are all the signs, he's sitting with me, alone, looking deep into my eyes, he has his arm on my armrest, he's talking about needing to do something before school's over and he's talking about it to me! Not Hermione! Not Ron! Me! She escaped her wonderful soliloquy and took the effort to say, "Come on Harry, tell me already, what is it?"

__

BOOM! BAM! Fireworks went off in her heart. "Oh, Harry, that's wonderful! Who?" Any second now he would take her into his arms and tell her how much he loved her, since the first meeting on platform nine and three quarters, then he would give her the kiss she had been waiting for all this time! All these years! 

"I'm glad you're being so nice about this." He looked genuinely relieved. "This is why I came to you. I knew that I couldn't go to Ron about this, you see its really hard to admit you finally realized that you've 'liked' your best friend all these years.." he trailed off, blushing again.

"I'm his best friend? Since when?" She wondered to herself. She was just staring at him, a mix of wonder and happiness and sheer confusion on her face.

"You see, Hermione and I have been really close lately, I think I'm just realizing that after all this time.. well I really think I like her a lot and I don't know what to do about it!" He was so glad to have told Ginny that he didn't see it when her face crumbled, much like her entire heart.

"Hermione…?" was all she could manage, she was very aware of the fact that her voice must sound low and forced.

"Yeah who else would it be..?" He looked genuinely puzzled.

__

Me her heart cried out inside. _ME! Me the girl who has loved you from afar since before I could go to this school. Me.. who else._

"Ohh…," a look of comprehension had just crossed his face.

__

No! she felt her body convulse. _I can't take it if he gives me his pity. If he ever knew I'd just die._

"You thought it was Cho Chang, didn't you? Yeah, I've been over her for a few months now. I guess I forgot to mention it, it slipped my mind."

"Yeah.. Cho, right." She drowned out. She had been wrong. Had he known it was her she would have felt better than this. Harry had liked two girls, neither of them her. And all this time he had never thought of her. Aside from as Ron Weasley's little sister. All her wishing, all her hoping, it meant nothing. He had never even noticed that she liked him? Was he really that thick? Or was she just that unattractive.

"You see, I don't know how to ask her out, if I should do something really special or what.. and I mean you're a girl, you know exactly how you would want to be asked out. So please any help you can offer."

It was like a dagger that just kept going further until she ready to pass out from screaming mentally. "Yeah, you're right. I do know how I want to be asked out… I'd have to say from personal experience it would be a lot like this. Just the two of us, the fire, and a totally honest conversation. Yeah, a lot like this…" she trailed off.

"Really? Nothing fancy? No special plans? No big speeches?" He seemed shocked.

"Nothing fancy, it seems too obligatory. No special plans, it seems too much too soon. No big speeches, it seems too rehearsed. Just the two of you, totally unexpected and heartfelt. Girls love it that way."

"Thanks, Ginny; you've been such a big help." 

"No problem Harry. If you'll excuse me.. I umm have to go." She didn't think she could keep the tears back too much longer. 

"Where are you going?" He seemed only half interested, she could tell he was in a hurry to get to Hermione as fast as he could. 

"Detention." She lied. Why couldn't he let her leave already. He was going to ask Hermione out. Did he need to hold her up when all she wanted was a good cry?

"Detention! With which teacher?"

"Snape," it seemed the most possible to her, "yeah I umm, melted a cauldron today and the potion got all over the floor. He wants it washed until he can see his face in it. I'm hoping he'll drop dead once he realizes how hideous he looks... Good luck with Hermione.." 

"Thanks.." he said, but she was out of earshot, she had already run across the room and out the portrait.

***

***

Safely outside the common room she began to walk. She had no idea where she was headed. She had a large amount of studying that needed to be done, but she didn't care she couldn't study, not now. 

__

I never want to see him again! She thought horribly as she turned down another corridor. _I'm so embarrassed. He doesn't love me; he doesn't like me; he doesn't want me. He wants Hermione. He wants to be with her. No one wants to be with me. This is so unfair... Why couldn't I have told him how much I love him, how much he means to me. Would it have mattered? Would he have just laughed at me? _And then a horrible thought hit her. _Maybe he realized! Maybe he knew all that time that I wanted him to ask me out and he was just pretending to not know, to spare my feelings._

It's so horrible to love someone who doesn't love you back. If only love potions were allowed. I'd risk expulsion from Hogwarts just to have him look into my eyes the way he did tonight and say "Ginny I love you." I'd say something like, "Oh, Harry! I love you too! But what about Hermione and Cho?" And he of course would reply, "Hermione and Cho who? All I know is you, my love." 

He certainly wouldn't have said, "You see, Hermione and I have been really close lately, I think I'm just realizing that after all this time.. well I really think I like her a lot and I don't know what to do about it!"

It was still painful to think about.. When would he realize his hidden love for her? Surely it had to be hidden somewhere. It must be hidden some where very deep. But if given the chance, and the proper setting, she would have dragged it out of him.

Light was still fading, not nearly darkness, not bright enough to be day. It was so serene and quiet. Ginny pushed the huge oak doors open and slowly trudged her way into the open grass. She titled her head up high and stared up at the sky. It seemed so hard to imagine all the other people at other places leading different lives, all at this instant, and yet hers seemed so horrible. Harry was going to ask Hermione out. She was going to say yes. She would have the wondrous opportunity of watching the two at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Why did there have to be so many eating times? Why couldn't they be like fish? Then they could live in tanks, never worry about love, and eat once a day. 

Hermione, Harry, and Ron always spent the summer at her house, it was just a tradition. The Dursley's would certainly never allow it, and Hermione's house wasn't big enough. Not to mention the fact that despite their inability to use magic, two wizards and a witch with an entire summer were bound to attract attention to themselves in one way or another. 

She would have plenty of time to see the "Dream Team," as Snape called them, all together. _Mom won't let me have anyone over. "Sorry Ginny but the house will be too full with Harry and Hermione here, there's just not enough room." The house is big enough for Ron to have two friends every year, but just one year I can't have even one?!_ She knew it had to do with the Weasley's desire to know that Harry was safe, but still, it was the principal of the matter. That and the fact that before Harry had always been single; the summer had always been a time to be around him and have her little dreams that she knew would never come true. But it didn't stop her from dreaming them.

She and Hermione always hung out during the summer. They shared a room together; Ginny had never minded it. They had fun staying up late talking about Viktor Krum, and school, and whether Snape wore boxers or briefs. Now it was going to be the 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Harry Show. Not that this was a show she would have ever disapproved of.. The Harry Show would have been more than welcome, but finding out from Hermione, reporter and eyewitness, what was going on between them.. that would be more than she could handle.

__

I don't want to pretend that I think it's swell when Harry tells Hermione that he loves her for the first time. I don't want to tell Hermione how lucky she is to have him. Though she certainly is. I don't want to tell her that Hermione Potter has a real ring to it,, or pretend to turn into a puddle of oozing goo when she shows me the bracelet he bought he for an anniversary present. Yes, I turned into a puddle of oozing goo when she showed me the bracelet Viktor gave her, but that was different. I acted like that, because in my mind I could picture Harry doing something like that for me. Now I can't. Sure, I can, but not without feeling guilty. 

It was late at night and the two girls were weary from the long day they had just ended. It was the fourth of July and the four of them, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny, had decided to go up to Ottery St. Catchpole, to watch the Muggle fireworks. On the way they had stopped for a short time to have lunch in a tiny wooded area, surrounded by trees, with a moderate sized lake.

As the happy group had begun to eat Harry and Ron had seen a sizable tree trunk from a fallen over tree. "Oy, Harry I bet you can't cross the lake on that!" Ron announced, pointing to the trunk, a small distance away.

"Bet you I can!" Harry pronounced, hopping up, motioning for Ron to follow and help him carry the wood to the pond.

"Harry!" Hermione had called laughingly after him, "You may be a great Quidditch player, but I don't remember balance and acrobatics as being your strong points." 

When it was in place, Harry had tested it with one foot, and deciding it was stable enough, he climbed on, placing one foot in front of the other. Ginny had seriously thought he was going to prove Ron wrong, when suddenly Harry, without making the slightest sound or scream, just fell. Just like that. One second he was halfway across, the next moment his arms were flailing, he was swaying back and forth, and before Ginny could even finish gasping, he had fallen into the water.

She remembered at first being full of panic, what if he was drowning?! She needed to save him! But when his head popped up, and she saw his smiling face, she knew that he was none the worse, except perhaps somewhat wetter. When he had stepped out of the water, soaked from head to toe, clothes stuck tight to his body she knew that she must have blushed more scarlet than her hair was. He looked absolutely swoon-worthy standing there, water dripping from the ends of his normally messy hair, white tee shirt showing some of his tanned figure through the fabric, his eyes somehow seeming greener, and when he took off his glasses to dry them.. she had to turn her head down to prevent herself from making a fool of herself by goggling at him.

Harry had walked over sat down across from her and with a smile at them all picked up a sandwich and began to eat it, as though he had just arrived, and nothing had happened at all.

Back that night in her room Hermione and her had been laughing just to recall the instant while Ginny was busy gasping for air, in which Ron had fallen on the ground absolutely in hysterics. 

"Did you see the look on Ron's face! I never saw anything more hilarious!" Hermione was grinning as she sat in her cot, with the blankets over her legs. 

"Yeah, it was great." replied Ginny, pretending to have noticed. In truth she hadn't noticed at all. She hadn't noticed anything all day after that. All she could think of was Harry, standing there, and feeling as though somehow the beautiful smile he had given was only for her. For no body else. 

"I almost forgot!" Hermione said jumping off the bed and walking over to her suitcase, "There's something I wanted to show you from Viktor!"

"Oh!" said Ginny, truthfully getting all excited at the prospect of seeing something from Hermione's boyfriend. He always gave her the sweetest things, looking at them made her feel so warm inside. She could only imagine how wonderful it would be to have someone giving her things like that, it must have felt a thousand times even better. Hermione had been the thing he would miss most, in the tournament. It seemed almost impossible that someone could ever care that way about Ginny. She wanted it so badly though...

"Ginny?" Ginny looked up to see Hermione looking at her, curiously apparently she had been starring off into space. "What's on your mind?"

"No one." She said it so fast that Hermione looked imploringly at her, but she didn't press the subject, she simply took a box out of her hands, and opened the lid. She handed the contents to Ginny. 

It was a beautiful charm bracelet. Each charm had a special saying on it. One said 'Her-mow-ninny' the way Viktor had first learned to pronounce her name. Another charm had a mermaid on it, apparently from the Tri-wizard tournament. Each one had some sentimental value, it was the sweetest thing that Ginny had ever seen, and she felt like she was practically about to cry and she turned the bracelet around in her hand, taking a moment to look at each charm.

"It's beautiful.." she said, smiling at Hermione, "he must really like you."

Hermione smiled back, somewhat blushing. She took the bracelet back, placing it inside the box, and replacing it in her suitcase.

"It's late, and we're going to be busy tomorrow; why don't we go to bed?" Hermione suggested.

"OK," Ginny replied.

And when Hermione flicked out the light she lay down, but couldn't sleep, she didn't even want to. All she wanted to do was think of Harry. In her mind she could see him stepping out of that lake, looking just like earlier that day, and when he had smiled she knew that he was smiling just for her. She knew it because there was no Hermione or Ron anywhere around. It was just her and Harry, and a beautiful day. 

He came over to her, and didn't say a word, he just put his arm around her. He was absolutely soaked but he put his arm around her all the same, as though it was the most natural thing ever. And she could feel the wetness, but she didn't mind at all, because wet or dry, he just felt good. He felt like safety, strength, and love all packaged up into a very nice box. 

And he gave her a look that turned her heart into a puddle of oozing goo. She felt her ability to separate thoughts slowly fall away. But she didn't need to think, because there was nothing to think about. This was just so perfect and right.

"I have something for you," he said, reaching into the pocket of his robes.

He handed her a wet package. "I'm sorry it's wet," he paused and smiled at her, "but I'm sure it's OK."

Tearing open the package she found a box, and inside of it, was the charm bracelet that Hermione had received from Krum. And she felt that warm feeling pop up inside her as she turned it over in her palm. The way it feels to know that someone loves you, someone cares about you. The charms were different though, on one was the number 9 and ¾ from the platform where they had first met. On another was a giant snake, symbolizing the time in her first year, when he had saved her life from the basilisk.

"What do you think?" He asked, he looked worried, waiting for approval.

"Harry…"

"I'm sorry if you don't like it… I wasn't sure." Now he looked apologetic.

"No!" she rushed. "It's not that… this is just so special.. I love it!"

She clasped it around her wrist and hugged him tightly, everything was right in the world. 

If only it was for real.

But that was a year ago. And now if Harry was going to be giving any beautiful charm bracelets to anyone it wasn't going to be her, it would be Hermione. 

She pulled herself up from the grass and smoothed her robes straight. Ginny was about to make a sullen return to the Gryffindor common room when voices, coming from the other side of a nearby bush, caught her attention. 

"Damn that smirking git, Potter," came a horribly familiar voice; it was Draco Malfoy.

"Yeah…smirking git," echoed Crabbe and Goyle, dumbly.

"That game was totally unfair. He has beaten me at Quidditch for the last time. The last!" his voice was hard with anger.

"Yeah…the last." 

"And you know what I'm going to do about it?" he asked with the air of a general getting ready to deploy troops on a mission.

There was an accentuated silence from Crabbe and Goyle. Ginny crouch-walked as close to the bush as she possibly could, while every step she took seemed more than loud enough to give her away. 

"I am going to make him pay." He said slowly.  


"Yeah…pay."

__

Why couldn't they ask how, or where, or when? Ginny wondered. _Why do they just keep repeating him. Doesn't it drive him absolutely insane to have no one to make plans with because his only friends are too dumb to make them with him?_

But Draco went on, apparently he was more than used to having his conversations in this way. "It's only because of his Firebolt. Potter has no flying ability." From anyone else the statement would have sounded forced, everyone knew Harry had more flying ability than anyone else at school, but Draco could say the sentence in such a way that it was almost believable.

"Yeah…no ability," came the chorus.

"So I am going to do something about it." He sounded dangerous here.

Ginny felt her body pulsate. _What is that creep going to do Harry?!_ She tried very hard to find a gap in the bushes, it was difficult, but without making too much noise she was able to push aside enough foliage to actually see Draco.

The dim light of the sun cast a shine on his silver hair. His whole body was so sure, he wanted this, he would do it, and nothing or no one could change his mind. He was the portrait of decision and loathing.

"Tonight I am going to sneak into his dorm, get his broom, break it into a thousand pieces, and return it, in a nice plastic bag, perhaps with a ribbon on it."

__

Oh no, you aren't! Ginny fiercely thought. _Not if I tell Harry first. Not only will he foil your plan, but he will see to it that you are expelled, you lousy, scheming piece of crap._

"Do you want us to come with you?" Crabbe asked, for the first time saying something on his own.

"No." Draco said firmly. "Too many people is a bad idea. But I'll let you know how it went." Ginny could see him smirk evilly. "I don't expect Potter will be too happy tomorrow, so you better work on not looking too pleased, as hard as it will be. And whatever you do, don't tell anyone where I am, or what I'm doing, remember the alibi."

***

***

"Knuts," said Ginny quickly, announcing the password and stepping inside the common room. _I need to find Harry!_

Harry was not in the common room, nor was Hermione, but Ron was. Ginny ran across to him, still winded from her unbelievable sprint back from outside.

"Ron, where's Harry?" she tried to conceal the worry in her voice.

"I dunno. He went off a little while ago with Hermione, said he needed to talk to her in the library about something." 

Her interest in Harry asking Hermione out temporarily strayed her from her pressing news. "Did he tell you what it was?"

"No. Why would he?" Now Ron looking imploringly at his little sister.

"No reason," she said quickly.

Ron's face lit up, as though he had just remembered something. "Harry told me you had a detention, why didn't you tell me?" He almost looked hurt.

"Forgot?" she said, hoping it would be a good enough excuse. 

"You forgot? About detention with Snape? How could you forget?" 

__

Damn she thought in her head. _ So much for that idea._ "Listen Ron, I've been so busy, I didn't even think of it. I almost forgot to even go. End of year exams and all, it's just been crazy, and I haven't seen you much lately. And I'm sorry but I've really got to go."

"Go? You just got back! You aren't going to look for Harry are you, because he told me not to come after him, they were going to be studying hard."

__

Studying. What a bunch of crap. They were going to be talking. Harry is going to ask Hermione out. And why? Because I told him exactly how to. Because he missed all my hints. I should have just told him how I feel. This is all my fault.

"Me? Look for Harry? Why would I?" she tried to look as though she didn't follow his train of thought.

"Because you came in here and asked me if I had seen him." Ron was now staring at her, trying to figure her out.

"Oh, I just wanted to tell him that tomorrow is a Hogsmeade trip…"

"Ginny we've known that for weeks!" Ron said in an amazed voice, hardly understanding how this could be what she needed to tell Harry.

"We have? Are you quite sure? I just found out on my way back from the dungeons, I saw a sign."

"That sign has been there for a week!"

"Has it?" She didn't really know what she was saying at this point.

"Yes! It has!"

"They should really make it bigger or something, so as to attract the eye."

"Ginny! It's three feet tall and blinking rainbow colors."

"My point exactly, what about all the people who are color blind!"

"You aren't color blind!!" his face was red with annoyance and confusion.

"Well, someone has to stick up for them! Some people exercise selective memory I was exercising selective vision. I mean if I don't stand up for them no one will, we can't expect them to do it for themselves!" 

"Why not?"

"Honestly Ron, sometimes I worry about you. How can we expect them to act against the discrimination of the signs if they can't see them?" Ron appeared too lost for words so she continued "Well, guess I don't need to tell Harry about that one, good thing, what with my inability to locate him," Ron was just looking at her, "you know how important those trips are.. I mean you never know when an exam question might ask how much Bertie Botts beans are going for these days."

"What class would ask that?!" Ron was getting into the mode he used with Hermione, the one where nothing could be left alone.

"Magical Food Prep!" She said, as though he was really being quite thick.

Ron sat and pondered for a few moments before he looked up and said, "Hogwarts doesn't have a Magical Food Prep class!" 

But she was already gone.

***

***

_I'll be his savior_ she thought as she walked down the halls. _I'll be the person who told him about Malfoy's attempt on his broom! The one who helped him finally kick that git out of this school! I'll be honored by everyone. By Harry… He won't remember who Hermione is. And it will be the other way around for once._

For once someone will want **me**. For once someone will fight for **my** affections. For once I'll feel important.

She pushed open the library door and slid into silently, surveying the area.

Ginny spotted them. Harry and Hermione were sitting a little off to the side, alone at a table, with a few books in front of them. But Harry wasn't reading his book. He was just staring at Hermione.

Perhaps he had already asked her. No, it didn't seem that way. His face looked too contorted with worry. _ I could easily sit down and join them, try and act as though I didn't know they would be here…_She heard herself in her head._ "Harry, Hermione! I can't believe you guys are here, I'm here doing a project for Herbology. How are you two?"_

Then she could sidle up next to Harry and whisper into his ear very quietly what Draco's plan was. She could just imagine the look he would give her. And fittingly, Hermione would disintegrate into nothingness and it would just be the two of them, all alone, in the library.

But he'd be so upset with her. How was she supposed to explain not knowing that he would be attempting to work up the nerve to do the very thing they had talked about just an hour or so ago. 

What if he hated her because of it? She could never take that. She would just die if he ever looked at her the way he looked at someone like Malfoy. 

Her worries were put to rest when suddenly she heard Hermione say, "I'm really tired Harry, I'm going to go back to the dorms, are you coming?"

He looked at her oddly, Ginny knew that it was because he was trying to say what he desperately wanted to say, but he didn't, he just said, "Not this minute, I'll be back soon. Goodnight.."

She returned the goodnight and waved good-bye, walking out of the room. Ginny couldn't help but feel a stream of hatred come bubbling to the surface. _Hermione Granger_, she thought bitterly, _what a horrible person._

Walking out from behind the stacks Ginny sat down to talk to Harry. He looked at her and said, "Hey, Gin, where'd you come from?"

"Detention, just got back, I needed to tell you something. So how'd it go with Hermione?" She tried to look interested.

"It went terribly. I couldn't work up the nerve to do it," he said sadly. 

"Why not?" She didn't want to know, but she couldn't just say "_OK that's wonderful, onto me and my news."_

"I don't know," he looked as though a rain cloud was hovering above him, "I just kept thinking how pretty she is, and how much I like her. And how much it would hurt if she turned me down. It would be unbearable."

"Yeah," said Ginny, "I can hardly imagine."

"Listen whatever you needed to tell me can it wait 'til we're back in the common room? I don't feel up to anything else right now."

"Sure, I'll walk back with you."

They walked back in silence, Ginny wanted to hold his hand or have his arm around her, or anything that people did when they were walking together and going out. But they weren't, and all he was thinking about was Hermione.

__

It's a good thing I'm with him or he might just walk into the walls.

They reached the common room and stepped in, him first, so downcast that he didn't even have the thought to be polite and allow her to go first.

"So," she began, breaking the ice, "about that thing I needed -"

"Hey Harry!" Ron yelled from across the room.

"Hey Ron." Harry called back.

"How are you?" Ron seemed to pick up on Harry's bad mood.

"OK.. can you wait a minute, Ginny has something she needs to tell me."

"Oh that! It's just some stupid thing about Hogsmeade being tomorrow and whatnot. I told her we already knew, but maybe she was worried about you failing Magical Food Prep or something." Ron smiled.

"Magical Food Prep? What's that?" 

"Don't ask me…"

Harry turned to Ginny, "Thanks for the heads up about Hogsmeade, and don't worry, I can't fail a class I'm not even taking..." he tried to smile so that she wouldn't feel embarrassed. 

Harry turned back to Ron and the two of them ascended the boy's staircase.

__

Damn! Ron why did you have to do that! Why did you have to be here! You ruined everything! A little voice in the back of her head told her that she should have just told Ron about Malfoy and that she hadn't because of her desire to be the one to tell Harry, and her worry that Ron might if she couldn't find Harry, and that if Ron told Harry she would lose the credit. She wouldn't be his savior anymore.

She was now one of the only people in the common room. Just a few seventh years who hadn't yet cleared out. _Draco is going to come and ruin Harry's broom unless someone does something about it! Unless I do something about it! I have to wait here, I have to be sure that nothing happens. I have to stop Malfoy._

Ginny waited. The room slowly emptied until at last she was the only one left. She slid into an armchair to wait for him. The time passed slowly, and she began to think about Harry.

__

How can it be that I've known him all these years and wanted him to want me all these years and yet still..nothing. I heard once that if enough people get together and will for it to snow, it will. How come all my collective thoughts aren't enough. Gosh knows I want it more than anyone could ever want stupid snow.

He was in the library, all flustered about Hermione. He couldn't even bring himself to do it. He didn't. Not yet. There has to be something I can do. I can't just sit back and let him get further away from me. He's the only one for me. Why can't he see it. Why can't I be smart like Hermione? Or pretty like Hermione? Attractive like Hermione? Why can't I **be** Hermione?

If me saving Harry's prized broom isn't enough then I'm going to do something. I'm going to make him notice me. Notice me as not just a friend.

She would have continued like this for hours had it not been for Draco entering the room…

"Stupid, Longbottom, would have thought he might have learned not to write passwords down, after the incident in third year." Ginny heard his voice as he walked across the room, in the direction of the stairs.

She was strategically placed in a chair facing the opposite direction, sitting Indian style, she practically faded into the darkness, aside from her fiery hair. 

Draco looked at both staircases; he seemed to be deciding which one was the girls' and which one was the boys'. Apparently he wasn't sure if it was the same as in the Slytherin common room. He chose the one to the left, and walked up.

Ginny peeked over the top of the chair and glimpsed him headed up the wrong set of stairs. Biting her lip, not sure what to do, she took it as her opportunity to get in a better position. Her thoughts were unclear, and a strange excitement rushed through her body.

Running up the stairs to the boys dorm, making as little noise as possible, she positioned herself in the shadows, on the side of the door. 

__

Creak.

Draco had opened the sixth years dorm on the other side; he would realize that it was the girls dorm, and any second now he would be coming her way. 

__

Hold your breath, she told herself. _Don't let him hear you until he's up here. Don't give him the advantage of surprising you. _ But it quickly became evident that she would surely suffocate if she didn't breathe at all, so she took deep, slow breaths as she waited.

Finally she saw him slip past her. She hated him so much at that moment. She hated him for everything he had planned against Harry. Against **_her_** Harry. He was worse than Hermione, in her opinion. Harry at least liked Hermione, but he hated Malfoy. Harry always came first to her, and while she hated Hermione for having Harry, she had more obligation to hate Malfoy. Harry's archenemy was her archenemy too.

The light came in from a window, casting a shimmer over his hair. Draco's face was adorned with the normal sneer, but it seemed magnified for the occasion. His hand was on the handle of the sixth year boy's room. For a split second Ginny wanted to just stay back in the shadows; she felt in over her head.

But something was giving her adrenaline like she had never felt before. How could she turn away? Turn away from Harry? She couldn't. It was as physically impossible as it was mentally. And before she could really process the thoughts, before she could weigh consequences or feel the fear the was part of her, part of being Ginny, she had put one firm hand on his shoulder. A firmer hand than the mind controlling it.

She felt him tense beneath her hand. He jumped, and she thought for one terrified moment that he would scream. That the two of them might be discovered, standing together, in the dark, in front of the Gryffindor 6th year boy's room; him a Slytherin, her a Gryffindor.

He swiveled around to face her, simply staring, totally and utterly at a loss for words, for once.

-------

There you are J 

I hope you all liked it, if so, please let me know! Leave a review!

BTW, ff.net is no longer sending free author alerts, so if you liked this chapter, and you want me to email you when further chapters come out just say so in your review, and leave your addy, and I will!

Much love, see you all when I post chapter 2, and go check out the wonderful stories of my beta Static, she has a unbelievably wonderful, completed series called Voices, and another in progress called What Would Mum Think!!

Also, next time I'll have a thanks section for anyone who reviews J 

Happy Holidays, what ever holiday you celebrate!


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